William Winstanley Hull (1794–1873) was an English barrister, writer, and hymnographer. Hull wrote in favour of ecclesiastical reforms to the Church of England, particularly its liturgy, in order to permit some Dissenters to reintegrate into the church. Alongside his vicar brother, William Winstanley Hull produced a petition on liturgical reform which was presented to the House of Lords. His effort to locate the original manuscript of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is credited with leading to its discovery by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley. Hull's books of hymns, originally published anonymously, were later republished in his name during his lifetime.

Free and Candid Disquisitions is a 1749 pamphlet written and compiled by John Jones, a Welsh Church of England clergyman, and published anonymously. The work promoted a series of specific reforms to the Church of England and its mandated book for liturgical worship, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. Through these proposed changes, Jones hoped that the more Protestant independent Dissenters–who had largely broken with the Church of England in 1662 and been legally tolerated since 1689–could be reintegrated into the church.